Tears of Different Colors
by WritelkeUmeanit
Summary: It's Mother's day in Storybrooke... (Post S2 Queen of Hearts. Emma/Snow. Emma/Henry.)


**Tears of Different Colors**

Emma was jostled awake by something she couldn't quite put her finger on- that is until she opened her eyes and found her eleven-year-old son starring at her.

"Jeez, make a noise," Emma grumbled.

"Sorry," Henry apologized. "I've been waiting for you to wake up. Gram and Gramps made breakfast. They're waiting for us."

"Oh, kid, thanks, but it was a long night. All I wanna do is sleep."

"Can you move the spoon yet?"

Emma nodded. "Right across the table."

"Cool!" the boy cheered.

For a little while now, Emma had been taking magic lessons from Rumpel. All was going fairly well, but Emma had a tendency to get frustrated with herself, her emotions tampering with her progress at times.

"Has he told you what he wants yet for teaching you?"

"Not yet. I'm sure that bomb'll drop soon."

Henry frowned.

"Don't worry about it, okay? I can handle it. You just… be a kid and let me deal with this."

"But-"

"Come on, breakfast is waiting," Emma urged while swinging her legs from the bed.

With a worrisome look on his face, Henry followed Emma.

Hurrying down the stairs from the loft, the kitchen table soon came into view. Emma's eyes widened at the sight.

"Wow," Emma awed. "Is it Thanksgiving?"

"Too much?" Snow asked through a wince.

"No such thing," James said while bringing the butter to the table.

"Wait, before we eat!" Henry exclaimed while running to the back of the room. He opened a cabinet drawer and pulled out two self-made cards. First he ran to Snow and said, "this is for you," then he jetted over to Emma. "And this one's for you."

"Aw, Henry, you didn't have to," Snow said with a smile.

"Read yours first," Henry said to his grandmother.

Snow nodded eagerly. She looked to the front of the card where Henry drew a cartoon castle and the woods, along with the words, "_Happy Mother's day, Grandma_." Snow looked up to show her smile. She then opened the card and focused on the contents. "_I hope we go to the Enchanted Forest someday. Grandpa says I was born to be a knight. I've been riding my horse and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. Grandpa says I am. But until then there's a lot of stuff to do around here. I'm going to help out more with the chores. I'm going to learn how to do laundry and use the vacuum_," Snow read through a growing grin. When she reached the next paragraph, her face changed. "_Also, thank you for letting my mom move in with you. If you didn't, she wouldn't have had a place to go and she would have had to leave. Then the curse wouldn't be broken, and I wouldn't have my mom or my grandparents_…. Oh, Henry," Snow murmured while looking to her grandson with tears in her eyes.

The boy frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

"They're good tears," Snow reassured him while walking over to give him a hug. The two embraced and then Henry looked his mother.

With an unsure smile, Emma looked to her card. The card he gave snow threatened to make her eyes water. She wasn't sure about reading hers. But three pairs of eyes were looking at her, waiting. So Emma took a quiet breath and dove in.

_"Happy Mother's day, _" Emma started. She flipped the card open. She parted her lips to read the rest aloud, but stopped herself.

Snow and James watched with curiosity as Emma's eyes slowly went back and forth. Henry waited anxiously.

Very quickly, Snow saw Emma's eyes water. Then small teardrops trailed down her cheeks. Finally, Emma fell to a chair.

"Emma?" Snow asked with concern.

"Mom?" Henry questioned.

"Why did you write this?" she murmured.

"You don't like it?" Henry asked in disappointment.

Emma closed her eyes, the pressure causing more tears to fall. She took a breath and said, "you can't justify it. You can't say it was okay that I gave you away. It was not okay, Henry. It wasn't okay," she nearly cried.

"It was the right thing-"

"No, please, stop," Emma begged desperately. "Don't you understand? I have to share you with Regina, with the evil queen, of all people. I missed ten years of your life. I can't get that time back, Henry. No matter what I do, no matter how much power I have, I can't get that back… I can't."

"Oh, Emma," Snow sympathized while walking to her daughter. She sat down in the adjacent chair and took Emma's hand.

James pulled Henry aside, away from earshot and whispered, "you did good, Henry. It's just hard for your mom."

The boy nodded in understanding. He looked up to see his Mom and grandmother embrace.

"That's how I feel about you, Emma," Snow said, her tone hushed.

"Look what he wrote," Emma said holding the card open. "_If you didn't give me away, you wouldn't have found your parents and you would have always thought they abandoned you on the side of the road. But they didn't. They wanted to give you your best chance, like you wanted to do for me. Now we're together and we're a family and I love you so much."_

"He has a way with words," Snow said through a watery smile. "He gets that from your father."

"He should be angry with me," Emma countered.

"And you should be angry with me."

"I'm not eleven."

"You were angry, Emma," Snow countered softly while smoothing her daughter's blonde hair over her shoulder. "You were angry and hurt and confused and sad and probably so many other things. I can see you still are. Not as much. But there's still something between us. A wall… a wall that as Mary Margaret, I fought pretty hard to knock down."

Emma smiled at Snow's upturned lips.

"I know there was a time when Henry was angry with you. It showed through some of his class assignments, but more than that, I always saw it in his face. He was hurt too. He couldn't understand why someone gave him away… then I gave him that book and… well, you know what happened… he was able to make sense of it all… you have an amazing little boy, Emma."

"He just… baffles me. Too wise for his age."

Snow smiled further.

Emma leaned forward to put her chin to Snow's shoulder, who wrapped her arms around Emma's back.

"I have something for you."

Snow stood as Emma did. She followed her daughter but stopped on the staircase when Emma ran ahead. It took her not a minute to return with her white knit baby blanket in her hand.

Snow's eyes widened. "Oh, Emma, no-"

"I want you to have it."

"No, it's your baby blanket."

"It was yours first."

"Emma-"

Her tone serious, Emma said, "I wish there was something I could have from Henry, when he was baby. But I can't. Regina has everything. She's had him since he was three weeks old. There's nothing I can have from my son's past. I wish I could change that."

Snow looked at her daughter with a frown.

"Here," Emma said softly while holding out the blanket.

After a moment of hesitation, Snow asked, "are you sure?"

Emma nodded.

Carefully, Snow took the blanket from her daughter's light grasp. She pulled the soft fabric to her chest, holding it to her heart.

"I can't believe you kept this for 28 years."

"I needed something to hold on to," Emma said quietly.

"And now you have us. We're a family. Finally."

"Yes we are," Emma agreed firmly.

_The End_

**Thoughts? Hope you enjoyed!**


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